Introducing Emperors and Elephants

Article by Danny Coleman

“Jesse? Well, we weren’t even looking for him, to be honest. He was a vocalist in a band playing in a really crappy club. I just happened to be there for a few drinks, hanging out with some friends. Jesse started singing, and he was amazing! I thought, ‘There’s no way he could keep that voice up all night!’ I was wrong—he blew me away,” explains Emperors and Elephants drummer Jason Meudt, giving some insight into how the Chicago rock band was formed.

“Myself and guitarist Jeph Stiph have played together on and off for a long time. We’ve been in bands together, and we had been kind of taking things slow. We were in between things for a bit, and we hit a point where we thought we’d give it one more try. We were just tired of the drama that can come along with bands, but we figured we’d give it another shot.”

Finding bass player Ron “Stoppable” Vanders playing in an opening act and frontman Jesse Andrews when they least expected it, the group took shape instantly. “Then we added my friend Randy “The Arsonist” Cooper of The Texas Hippie Coalition on guitar, and it completed the lineup.”

Drawing comparisons to heavy hitters such as Alice in Chains, Seether and Shinedown, Emperors and Elephants have been gathering steam since their formation circa 2010–11. Little did they know their band would garner so much attention on local radio stations that they’d soon be making in-studio appearances, and are currently talking about a Midwest tour.

“I think of us as something that hasn’t been done, maybe in the last 10 years,” says vocalist Andrews. “Which is, just a new band that has kind of taken that grunge feel and kind of incorporated it into ‘nowadays’ kind of music. I always felt like the 70s were about the lyrics and the meaning behind songs, the 80s were about who could be the biggest, the baddest, who could have the best show and the craziest hair, and the 90s scene kind of had that hard rock and that really, really good drive to be great musicians and that technical proficiency, but then you also had like, no poetry. I feel like we kind of melded them together. We have really, really good musicians and we have great singing, but it’s got a little bit more heart than some of the music I hear on the radio. There’s a lot of meaningless cookie-cutter, you know what I’m saying?”

As to how they came up with the name Emperors and Elephants? “It’s funny, there’s a couple of stories, depending on who you talk to,” Meudt says. “Jesse tells one story, Jeph (guitarist Stiph) tells another. I liked it because the Es looked really cool when drawn back to back. The truth is, we were all sitting around trying to come up with a name, and like most bands we made a list. We just started jotting down names, words that came to mind and we settled on that.” Emperors. Elephants. Sure.

With their live performances attracting more and more attention and a fan base that’s growing by the day, the band is battling the logistics of putting together a small tour. “We’re looking at the end of February, a little bit into March. I think we’re going for maybe 10–15 days, and then we’ll regroup and go out again, maybe around the beginning of April,” says Andrews. “We’re pushing the current album. Putting a tour together straight down the middle of the US, starting in the Midwest and as far south as Texas. We’re working out the details now,” added Meudt. “Our guitarist Randy lives in Texas, so when we book gigs with this tour, we work around his travel schedule. He’s doing some things to get us in the right spots in Texas at the moment, so once that’s done, we’ll be getting things together and go.”

Devil in the Lake is their debut disc and is available from Pavement Entertainment. This full-length CD is packed from the first track on with tunes which are a mix of combined styles and musical tastes. “It’s interesting,” says Meudt. “All five members have different tastes in music. Jesse is grunge, kind of Alice in Chains; our bass player likes Rammstein; I feel we have a style that fits on rock or even heavier (radio) stations. The CD was recorded near us here in Ingleside. We used producer Brad Osmond, a local guy, and he was fantastic. He really flavored it up. Brad suggested things that we never would’ve even thought of and we were very open to it. We know that a lot of bands rarely let outsiders in, but we were open to it.”

I asked Meudt where he saw himself and/or the band in 10 years, which evoked a hearty laugh, as he said, “Hopefully in 10 years we’ll have enough material to have a Best Of collection, and we won’t be sitting in some discount rack. Seriously though, we hope that people who’ve heard and seen us, or were part of us will look back and say, ‘They’re cool guys, and man! did they put on a great show.’ I think that will be a good measuring stick.”

Emperors and Elephants are a hard-rocking group of top-notch musicians whose sound, at least in my humble opinion, is a combination of 80s metal, grunge and modern influences that just flat out rocks. They are lyrically superior to many acts on the circuit today with their main man, vocalist Andrews, delivering them with an expressive style. Guitar work is superb, drums and bass are exceptional and the overall product is worth the price whether it’s downloaded, bought as a hard copy or seen live.

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DANNY COLMAN |ROCK ON RADIO STATIONS ~ HAMILTON RADIO | GASHOUSE RADIO | ASBURY MUSIC